1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to drug delivery agents that can be (de)activated by visible or infrared light, and in particular to photocleavable and/or photodirectable drug, DNA, protein and RNA delivery agents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Photodynamic (PD) delivery is the control of the delivery of a bioactive agent with light. PD therapeutics normally fall into two classes: photosensitive drugs that decompose into reactive species (as with tetracycline) and photosensitive prodrugs that undergo a “photodecaging” reaction to give the active drug when irradiated with light. Gene-transfer therapy typically involves the insertion of working copies of genes into cells in which they are not adequately expressed for some reason. While tools for the photodynamic delivery of small molecule drugs are available, existing tools for the photodynamic delivery of large biomolecules such as DNA are inadequate. Thus it is desirable to develop photodynamic agents for DNA delivery.